Question of the Week: Your Opinions on Obama’s Health Reform?

Hi Priya thanks for joining us and including your opinions.  Your story is sad indeed, and I do wish there was some way to get insurance for ALL in your country.  It must be really hard to see an elitest system at work.

People here are looking to the drug companies in India to get inexpensive generic equivalents to the osteo meds.  Would you recommend this sort of thing?  From what I've read, the patent laws are completely different in your country and pharmaceutical companies can reverse engineer a drug, like Actonel, at a very inexpensive price.  For those here that either don't have insurance, or their insurance doesn't cover the price of a brand name drugs, are looking into the companies there that will sell their product for a extremely reduced generic price.

I wish there was an answer to your dilemma, and that all people were treated the same.

Let us know what you think of these drug companies that sell these drugs and if that's your source for medications as well.

Take care, and thanks so much for joining us again.  Always good to hear from you!!

Dear Pam,

Many thanks for your kind reply. I dont think the drug companies in India are that reliable -- there was news of suits being filed against the famous Ranbaxy.And I am not sure of the absolute meticulous care observed in making drugs. Besides a plethora of fake drugs with exactly the same covers and packs have come out in this country that it is hard to know which is which. My sister had once taken a medicine for blood pressure -- and her blood pressure went up after taking the medicine. Many pain relievers and anti-pyretics dont work at all and one wonders why. There is a chemist on the road directly beneath my house up here in the hills -- who is notorious for procuring and selling fake drugs, all of which bear the brand of the well known international companies of the world!! So they dont know what they will be letting themselves into once they start relying on the drug companies here. Even the famed Coca Cola had a suit filed against it for using polluted water with insecticides in it. Imagine such a drink being sent out at cheap rates from here to the US!!!

I hope you have been well yourself. Please take care! Maybe you should have been living in India to straighten a few things out here!!

Yours as always,

Priya

Hi Priya thanks so much for clearing up some personal issues I've had with drugs coming from your company.  Is it possible there is at least one or two reputalble ones?

I hope that some day soon you'll be given better health care because it breaks my heart to hear of these stories you mentioned.  How can Drs who have to take the Hypocratic Oath look at themselves in the mirror or even sleep if they are treating some poor individuals as sub-human.  It's totally mine boggling, and it makes me wonder what happened to what I was taught as a young child about having the ablility to have personal responsibility to yourself and all of humankind.

This is overwhelmingly sad and I hope will change soon.

Dearest Pam,

It is only a good human being like yourself with your upbringing and moral character who can feel the pain of humanity in any part of the world. The situation here is becoming worse day by day -- and doctors especially are after money! There is a small missionary hospital built by the Ameicans in Mussoorie many years ago -- however it is always short of doctors because no doctor wishes to risk his "career" by coming to a small town where there is little "scope" for money and status. Doctors had become feelingless a long time ago -- but with the coming of the computer age and people running after money and being paid better and better, the rat race for material things, cars, houses, has become so furious that anyone not earning a huge salary and not owning a huge house is discontent with what he has-- and so the doctors who make less are frustrated and angry and take out their anger on their poor patients. If any patient complains against a doctor and the hospital chides the doctor -- then the entire hospital staff goes on a strike, leaving the patients to groan with pain and even die. If the doctors are paid low salaries then again they go on a strike and the patients suffer from their callous behaviour. Patients in India have begin to see doctors as "antagonists" rather than friends. The Hypocratic Oath here has become a Hyppocrite's Oath-- and doctors arent even aware of it.

I too had hoped that things would become better here -- but even though money is now flowing and things are better in terms of money, yet the milk of human kindness and human values of love are fast becoming worse and worse day by day. Incidentally even in the big private hospitals the doctors will only be polite if they know you are a rich patient, for the poor they are careless if not callous!

I suppose when one has a picture of the kind that I have painted, then medical aid in the US becomes by far a panacea, whatever health plan it may adopt.

You are so lucky to be there and are such a help to the people.

Tare Care and remain well yourself.

Yours, as always,

Priya

Hi Don B, welcome and thanks for your opinions. I'm a bit embarrassed since I have to admit that I haven't read the entire Bill yet. My problem is that I would need to read it before I can make a decision on each issue. I won't let someone interpret it for me, so until I can read it all I can't respond fully to your individual arguments.

Your first point is on Keep your Doctor and Keep your Insurer, can you direct me to some language in the Bill that refutes this statement? I would hope that I will not loose my Dr. or Insurer, since having to change either would be absolutely horrible and extremely ineffective.

I do know a lot of people with Medicare that have the same issues as you, and they all seem to feel that there will be cuts or denial of service problems if the majority of the Bill will be financed by Medicare funding, but again I don't know if this will actually happen. Those with Medicare are already facing cut backs, so it doesn't seem that remote that this will continue. The standalone prescription drug plan is a real mess, but on the other hand it is better than nothing which is what all MC beneficiaries had just three years ago-NO Prescription Coverage. If you are one of those that has costly prescriptions the coverage gap/donut hole comes into affect pretty fast within the calendar year, so that means you can only get generics once in this gap, which can happen within the first few months of the year if your rx costs are high. The other problem they have is with tx's that aren't available in generic and if you have maintenance meds you have to take to prevent say heart disease, glaucoma (loss of sight), cancer and only a brand name is available you either pay full price or go without. What I want to know is will this new plan lower the cost of extremely high brand name drugs? Many have meds that they have to take that cost thousands of dollars a month, so will this plan help them, by limiting the price the Pharmaceutical charge for these drugs?

I don't believe there will be death panels, but again I haven't read the bill. Please correct me if you wish to.  We may see situations where an expensive procedure will be turned down for someone in their 70's or older, but I think this is happening already.  My mil is facing a similar situation since she is 85 and on MC, but I can't say for sure that the decisions to rush her hospital stay after a total knee replacement are age-based decisions.  It may have more to do with the fact that she does have a family who can care for her once she goes home, so in her case she has options which many don't.

Can you explain how the plan won't limit costs if that's what you believe? Give me some examples of how the cost will go up individually, aside from the figures we hear about the total amounts it will cost to implement this.

Are non-citizens covered? Again I'm sadly uninformed.

I have talked to many in Canada, and the opinions seem to be split right down the middle with 50% loving their plan and the other 50% not too happy. I have noticed that it also depends on what province you live in to find out if a treatment or drug is covered since it varies, so I'm told.

Thanks for voicing your opinion and I now must get to reading the "entire" Bill so I can decide for myself, since I won't rely on some one else's interpretation of each it. We all evaluate things differently and it never ceases to amaze me at how different each of us come to a personal opinion because we all see things quite differently and then apply it to our personal lives and medical issues.

Thanks so much for joining us and giving us your opinion. Please come back any time to discuss other issues we'll be covering. I hope to hear more about each of your issues, where you can give me direction on how to find it within the Bill, so I can decide for myself.